Monthly Archives: August 2017

They often say never forget where you come from. Or as the other saying goes, those who ignore it, are doomed to repeat it. The irony of the last sentence rings even more true when viewing the images of last week’s “Alt right” rally in Charlottesville. In what they claim, intended to be a protest of the removal of confederate monuments, turned into something much more disturbing and complex than just that. An increasingly scary and audacious theme emerged from this demonstration. As if the armpits of the country had secreted the undercurrent of bile and spilled it into one big White Nationalists rally. They had a purpose, and a goal. They claimed to want to tell us that these monuments were a significant part of American history, while being the pillars of the example as to why such history should be tucked away in museums and not displayed in front of government buildings with pride. But none of us should believe this was the only intent. They came to show their power and their numbers. Hundreds of torch welding, hate spewing, furious and entitled sub humans from all across the country, some even from territories of peace, such as my birthplace Canada, gathered to “disagree” with the obviously offensive symbols of the past. And that message was delivered with chants of “Jews will not replace us”! A cadence, echoed with the anger vividly displayed in their blood rushed faces which burned as hot as the Tiki torches they gripped with white knuckled intensity. These men had not just come to protest, they came for a battle. A battle in a war they feel that they have been losing. To them their territory has been invaded by immigrants, and Jews, and blacks, and Muslims, and don’t forget women too. They have lost ground, because all those other categories have taken away jobs and brought nothing but crime into the country that they built. They came with confederate flags to plant in the grounds of where their forefathers were buried in order to reclaim their birthright as the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s. The destroying of the confederate statues and plaques only serves as a reminder of these L’s they’ve been taken. And with that mindset, these people didn’t just come to protest they came for war! They didn’t just come to get their voices heard, they came to make sure that their force was felt! Literally!

Is this the year 2017 right? This is the modern era, is it not? This is the future we were aiming for? A time when a black athlete protests peacefully and is not only vilified but basically black balled him out of the league! But a violent protest waged by white men is somewhat supported by the leader of the country both live in. You think if you asked yourself in 1988, if this would be happening in 2017, that your answer would’ve been a yes? I surely don’t think so. We should be shocked and outraged at this digression in the progress of humanity. And yet many of us are not surprised. How can we be when the so called leader of the free world is elected based upon his bigotry and race baiting politics! When his votes are bred from the very hatred that sought to right the “wrong of Obama’s 8 years in office. It is no coincidence that since before Agent Orange took office, the racists seemed emboldened. As if his run to the white house signified a changing of the tide, in their endlessly losing battle. Perhaps this was the time to rise up and push the color line back! This is when Orange would stop the Browning of their nation! It was their call to arms, literally. Raise the confederate flags, and hail Hitler salutes, and Mexican border walls, and high alert immigration laws and stop all outsiders from destroying the good old red, white and blue. You know “Make America great again!!” They had found their leader. And in the after math of the battle waged in Charlottesville Virginia, their leader stood up for them when heinformed the world that they are just “Good People”. He supported these good white supremacists, and well natured Klan members stance and said “So this week it’s Robert E. Lee. I noticed that Stonewall Jackson’s coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?” as boldly as those who yelled “Jews will not replace us!” The irony that the leader of the UNITED states, would be supporting the protection of the statues and plaques that symbolized and even idolized the leaders who wished to DIVIDE it. The only place in the world that still celebrates those that fought against its very existence is the USA. Imagine swastikas still perched in the windows of some German homes? Mr. President, you have failed your country. To govern to part of your citizens and not the whole is a failure, but to applaud the efforts of those clamoring for division is a tragedy. You have opened the doors and invited these elements to raise their heads high in pride, for they are in the right, despite being alt left. You Mr. President have fueled the fires of hate and bigotry to appease your own gain and ego. And the saddest part in all this is that Mr. President, your current position may not even exist if your side had won that civil war. The irony indeed.

As the temperatures begin to drop, and the summer days come to an end in the GTA, the city let’s out a collective sigh. Not of relief but of the impending doom upon us. A feeling signified by the last long weekend of the season, the start of the Caribbean Carnival events, the final cleaning of the cottage and the line of soon to be abandoned campers and trailers, rolling back into the city. A general fear begins to creep into my thoughts, as slow as a frozen river but just as terrifying if stuck under it rather than on top of it. Winter is viewed by myself and many of my peers, with the same sentiments as those of the characters in Game of Thrones. I start to pine over the dreaded cold months ahead. Visuals of how many beautiful days were lost in battle with snowstorms and wind-chill factors. With the impending doom of September less than 40 days away, the only light at the end of the tunnel, or the only fire I can see through the blizzard is my vacation! For the last 5 years I’ve been taking an annual cruise with the boys, the yearly man trip, every October. A week on the Caribbean seas and the shores and beaches of 4 or 5 islands. It has been my recharge of solar energy just before the real deep freeze sinks in. It’s the yellow sun to my superman, just after being blasted by Victor Fries’ cannon. It gives my melanin its necessary dose of Vitamin D before I’m reduced to drops of a supplement from a bottle.

But it’s more than any of that.

It’s a vacation!! A word that 5 years ago, would’ve had far less of an emotional reaction from me as it does now. A practice that less than a decade ago I would have dismissed as unessential, I now deem as a vital part of what it truly means to be living. Just a mere 5 years ago I would have thought, “Vacation? Man that’s too much money for me to spend”, now if I had it to spend every week and a career that allowed it, I would! A simple 6 to 10 days in a tropical paradise, being waited on by eager and friendly staff, with liquor and music and sand and blue skies above and turquoise waters below has become like the air I breathe. It’s become my life!! I implore any one to find a better combatant for the winter blues, or year round depression, a more powerful cure for the mundane routine that we all get stuck in than a plane ticket out of town.

But it’s more than even that!!

I believe that out of town trips are an antidote for many of the world’s aliments. In many ways our lives are sectioned off or compartmentalized in terms of global views. We get brief clips on CNN or exaggerated visuals from movie and TV screens of foreign locations, as reference points of how people live in places that we don’t call home. And in this arm chair Anthony Bourdain ability that gives this a very false sense of familiarity with those people and those places. Many of us have passed judgement on areas of the world we have never been to, and never plan to, armed with only a printed story in the newspapers. To me, travelling is essential in the development of humanity. It expands our horizons. Allows us more than just a peak into another person’s life in a different continent. We get to touch those dirt roads, enter those one room flats, dance to that organic music and taste the sweetness of the fruit from palm trees. If even just for a few minutes, it allows us to step into the shoes of the locals.

But even without that…

There is that feeling you get when you’re out there in the world. After the walk from check-in to cabin, lugging them heavy bags through hallways and up the many stairs and into elevators is soon rewarded. When you open that hotel/ cabin room door and walk in, quickly laying all baggage down as soon as you can find a space by the bed you’ve chosen, automatically your steps take you to the balcony, and there welcoming you is what I call The Reason aka The View! The View that intoxicates all your senses. It’s the water that reflects a Toni Morrison book title “The Bluest Eye”. It’s the sun that instantly begins to charge through the layers of your skin with rejuvenating energy. It’s the smell of the salt water, which flies through your nostrils and into your lungs with vigor, gathering up all the remnants of stress and strain that managed to hold to my body, during the flight. It’s the sweet taste of that same stress and strain being discarded with a great exhale, into the blue sky, never to return for at least 7 days. This is life’s reward. This is living!